Generic Company Place Holder Everything Search Engine

Everything allows for quick and easy name and location searches
for, well, everything. This tiny download quickly creates an index
database of all your files (but not their contents) and displays
them in a simple, no-nonsense search window.

Search results display as you type, and techie types can
construct advanced searches using wildcards, Boolean operators, and
regular expressions. Non-experts can still get plenty of use out of
basic searches such as "family*jpg"--which will quickly display any
file that starts with "family," ends with "jpg," and has anything
in between (represented by the "*" wildcard).

You can double-click a search result to take the default action,
such as opening a Word doc or playing a movie file, or right-click
to open its folder, rename it, or perform other actions. You can
also drag and drop files listed in search results to other
locations, as you would from an Explorer window.

By default, Everything launches with system startup and runs in
the system tray. Advanced users can also tell it to act as an HTTP
or ETP (Everything Transfer Protocol)/FTP server, which allows for
connecting to an Everything program running on another computer
using Everything (for an ETP/FTP server) or a Web browser.

You can then both search for and download files via the remote
Everything program, which can be pretty darned convenient--and also
a big security risk if you don't know what you're doing. Don't
enable either server feature unless you're sure your computer is
protected by a separate firewall (not just one running on the same
PC) that will prevent people on the Internet from potentially
getting to your files through Everything, and make sure you tell
Everything to use a strong password for either server type.

Everything uses only a small amount of memory--15MB on my test
Windows XP computer, which is stuffed full of various files. If you
want to try a fast, free option for finding your files, give
Everything a shot. If you also want to be able to search within a
file, such as particular text within a Word doc, you might try Google
Desktop.

--Erik Larkin

To comment on this article and other PCWorld content, visit our Facebook page or our Twitter feed.